


The Karasuno Court Apartment Wallbord

by Chitsuu, ordinary_ineffability



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Implied Relationships, Multi, no major focus on relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 18:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8171707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chitsuu/pseuds/Chitsuu, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ordinary_ineffability/pseuds/ordinary_ineffability
Summary: A collection of items from the communal resident wallboard of Karasuno Court apartment complex, and stories linked to them.
(A series of snapshots into the lives of the residents, both students and workers, in the weeks before finals season)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Unfortunately, I didn't get the time I wanted to build more into this universe, but I've put together the snapshots of various characters in order to give a fleeting glimpse into their worlds. Once my authorship is revealed, however, I will happily take prompts/requests if people wish to know more about the characters' lives!
> 
> Whilst very few of the ships are explicitly stated, all are referenced and would be set in place with any future works in this universe.

 

 

 

> **[Item: A candid photograph inside 'Kiyoko’s Alchemy', with a business card carefully tacked to the corner]**

 

"Morning, Tadashi!" Yachi called out as she heard the tinkling of the shop's door and spotted familiar chestnut hair. Yamaguchi grinned, calling a greeting in response as he carried his latest tray of succulents through to the back room of the shop.

Kiyoko looked up from where she was stirring a luminous blue concoction, and smiled. "Good morning," she murmured, "are those the plants I've been needing for the good luck potions?"

Yamaguchi made an affirmative noise, carefully placing the tray down and running absent fingers over one of the plants' leaves. It pressed up into his touch, and he smiled down at it, mumbling encouragement under his breath. "Getting ready for exam season I take it?" he asked, watching as she carefully decanted the potion into a set of glass vials.

"Some of the regular customers choose to buy ahead of time, just in case. I'm preparing a couple of things here and there, but there'll be a lot more being created in a month's time." she explained, before glancing up as Yachi popped her head through the doorway.

"Mr Masayoshi here for his memory ointment," she called out, and Kiyoko stood, picking up a silvery bottle as she passed. The pair watched her go to the customer, before Yachi grabbed a chair and settled down. "So, how are things?" she asked. Yamaguchi laughed.

"We see each other every other day, there's not too much I can tell you," he pointed out, causing Yachi to become flustered. Taking pity, he continued before the girl could work her way into a meltdown. "Things are alright, getting busy at the shop as we approach Summer - there are a lot of weddings this year!"

Yachi perked up, eyes shining. "I love wedding season! All the girls are so pretty in their dresses, and there are flowers everywhere, and everyone gets really happy!" she enthused, a wistful look on her face. "It must be really stressful, though - I don't think I'd cope as a bride, there are so many things to keep track of, and what if you forgot something? What if you didn't order a dress in time, or you gained loads of weight between buying the dress and getting married? What if the best man lost the rings? What if-"

"Yachi, calm down!" Yamaguchi cut in, eyes wide. "Things aren't run by the bride alone, you know? Also, what brought on the sudden panic?"

Yachi blushed, looking down and fiddling with the hem of her dress. "I guess... Wedding season always makes me think of what it would be like, getting married. Like, I love the idea of it all but it sounds so daunting..." Her gaze darted out to the shop, and she added, "not like I'm likely to be getting married soon anyway, but I always end up thinking about it."

Yamaguchi walked across the room and ruffled the girl's hair gently. "I still think you should say something, Yachi - surely it's better to try?"

Yachi shook her head frantically, looking worried. “No way – Kiyoko’s super pretty, and so calm and cool and… And I’m me.” She sighed, “I’m me, and she sees me as the clumsy but sort-of charming employee and maybe friend, and that’s fine.”

Yamaguchi opened his mouth to protest, but before he could say anything Kiyoko appeared once again. Instead, he resorted to ruffling Yachi’s hair again. He had to go – his shop was due to open in half an hour and he needed coffee – so he said his goodbyes and jogged out of the shop again.

 

> **[Item: Poster advertising the Tanaka siblings’ next concert. To its side, a sticky note with a song request, signed ‘Ennoshita’]**
> 
>  

Ennoshita had his timing down to an art form, these days. Daichi had teased him originally, asking whether he had a diary detailing every aspect of his neighbour’s morning routines. He had stopped the remarks when Ennoshita had asked whether the crow upstairs had given him more nicknames, but it was a few weeks later when he acknowledged the positive effects of syncing routines with Tanaka Ryuunosuke.

It started at quarter to seven, when the first of three alarms would drag Tanaka (and, thanks to thin walls, Ennoshita) from slumber. The first alarm would be responded to with curses and the thump of a pillow hitting the clock from the desk. The second alarm would have a less violent end, but would be muffled under a second pillow. Finally, the third alarm would start Tanaka Ryuu’s morning playlist, and within minutes there would be a hum accompanying the melody.

Whilst this would be enough to help Ennoshita kick off his duvet and clamber out of bed, the true wake-up came with the morning shower.

Singing in the shower was normal enough, and would help the person showering to invigorate themselves, setting the mood of their morning. With the musical powers held within the Tanaka family, however, there was a more widespread effect. Tanaka Ryuu had been blessed with the ability to have impact on the emotions of others through song. If he could be convinced to sing a lullaby, anyone listening would have the best night of sleep in their life. He’d been banned from singing songs about heartbreak after causing more people to cry than Titanic.

Luckily for Ennoshita, his musical neighbour had a particular genre that he enjoyed singing as part of his morning wake-up ritual: theme songs. Equally luckily, these theme songs were often for action-packed shows and films. Occasionally, the songs would be a little too overpowering, and Ennoshita would need to drink hot chocolate just to calm down enough to focus during lectures or training with Daichi. There had been one morning where the music had hyped him up so much that he ran the entire way to the lecture hall and spent the entire two-hour seminar with a leg bouncing restlessly as he made notes.

This particular morning, Tanaka was blasting out the theme to a sports anime that had risen in popularity across campus. It was just the right level for Ennoshita to have a spring in his step as he made his way out of the apartment.

He reached the lobby in time to see Tsukishima coaxing a small stream of water from the rain outside into the base of the large potted plant by the wallboard. As soon as Tsukishima realised he had company, the water stopped and the blond shot the older student a blank look, one eyebrow raised in question.

Ennoshita simply offered a smile, before checking out the latest poster to be added to the wall. With the upcoming finals for most of the apartment block’s inhabitants, the Tanaka siblings were holding another concert, focused on motivation and confidence. There was a stack of sticky notes by the wallboard, and a couple of people had already put up requests. Thinking for a moment, Ennoshita picked up a note and wrote his own, sticking it to the right of the poster. He had a joint project with Daichi and three exams in the space of two weeks, and whilst he was confident in his abilities – both academic and magical – he knew that a musical pep-talk wouldn’t be amiss. Nodding at the wall, and tacking up another note about an upcoming film project he needed volunteers for, he made his way out into the rain, ready to deal with whatever the day threw at him.

 

> **[Item: a post-it note message, enquiring as to the source of the flower-notes being pushed beneath apartment doors]**
> 
>  

At this point in the term, Ukai barely felt a flicker of surprise as he opened the door to his apartment and found peach-coloured paper folded by his feet.

They had first started appearing a few weeks before, and it had nearly given the shopkeeper a heart attack. He had come back from a long, busy shift and had closed his door with a tired sigh, resting his head against the wood. Blinking tiredly, he glanced down whilst taking off his shoes and blinked in surprise at the folded paper by his feet. He picked up the paper, staring at it before unfolding it.

He barely had the change to read the word ‘perseverance’ before the page dissolved and reformed into a stalk of canary grass. The change had caused Ukai to drop the note with a yelp, and it had taken a moment for the shopkeeper to bring his heartrate back to normal levels. It had taken him a few more minutes for him to decide what to do with the plant, but eventually he had decided to place it a vase on his desk.

That had been the first, but it had been far from the last. Slowly, the vase had gained a varied collection of flowers and stems. White heather, lavender, passion flowers, sage, and yellow acacia had all appeared, and soon there were multiple vases.

He had no idea who was sending the notes, but he was aware that other occupants were receiving similar gifts. He had posted up a question about it a few weeks ago, and had received a sprig of honey flower that evening. He had to put his head in the fridge for five minutes to cool his face at the phrase that caused that flower to bloom.

Originally, he had suspected young Yamaguchi on floor two, what with his flower shop, but whilst the boy had a magical green thumb when it came to flora, Ukai knew that the florist did not have written magic, ruling him out. The Tanaka siblings’ magic was in music, Sugawara on floor four had wind magic – as well as hayfever, and Hinata was more likely to accidentally set the fire alight than to create flowers. Plus, given the meaning of the honey flower, he highly doubted that it would have been any of the students.

The flower had bloomed from ‘secret love’.

After some time, he had stopped looking, and simply enjoyed the variation that the little notes brought to his otherwise-dull apartment. He’d mentioned it to Takeda-sensei when the junior lecturer had popped into the shop for groceries, and the man had laughed at Ukai’s attempts of deduction.

“Why not enjoy the surprise of it all, rather than worry over the source? The flowers are pretty, and the meanings kind.” He had replied with a twinkle in his eye, and Ukai found himself agreeing with the other. He’d half-heartedly grumbled, but the fond smile on the lecturer’s face told him that his mask of grouchiness was transparent.

And so the flowers continued, the collection grew, and Ukai’s flat smelled sweeter by the week.

 

> **[Item: a set of photo-booth photos, with two people: one man, tall and nervous, and another, short and excited]**
> 
>  

Whilst Asahi and Nishinoya had been aware of each other before, due to having friends in common, the first time they held a full conversation was the result of a 3am fire alarm. A small fire had occurred in the complex’s laundry room, after a competition between two students – a pair that had a betting pool over their relationship status totalling a few thousand yen between the rest of the complex – became heated in more than one sense.

Asahi had been desperately trying to sleep, stressed by upcoming finals and his thesis and a million other things, when the alarm had gone on. There had been a moment when he had glanced at the pouring rain outside, listened to the wind and the thunder, and briefly debated whether it would be worth the risk of burning to death by staying in bed. In the end, he was dragged outside by Daichi, who had hammered at his apartment door until the taller man joined him.

Daichi had left his side, now in light conversation with Sugawara. Between Daichi’s reaction to Suga’s shrimp-patterned pyjama shorts, and Daichi’s reaction to the other’s crow familiar, spouting its usual insults, Asahi had found himself muffling laughter behind his hand whilst trying to stay out of the worst of the rain. He was finding it increasingly more difficult to ignore, however, since the downpour had soaked into his shirt and was causing him to shiver uncontrollably.

It was as he was berating himself for not grabbing a coat when he became aware of a presence to his left. He’d jumped in shock, making a very un-manly shrieking noise, and the other man had laughed. Asahi immediately recognised the other by his hair. “Hey, Noya.” He’d greeted, earning a grin in response.

“Hey there, big guy!” Nishinoya had responded, looking none the worse for wear despite only wearing a tank top and cargo shorts. Then again, Asahi mused, the boy’s magic was centred in storms, so it would make sense for them not to affect him. Noya must have noticed him shivering, however, as within moments the wind had died down and the rain had become a warm drizzle. Asahi sighed in relief, rubbing at his arms.

The pair stood in silence for some time, but unlike most silences where Asahi’s anxiety would choke him and make the air seem heavier, he felt oddly calm. Soon, Noya started chatting about random things – what he’d had for lunch, the new song that he loved but Tanaka hated, a debate over whether Tsukishima from first floor was dating his childhood florist friend, or whether they were still oblivious, anything that came to the weather-caster’s mind. Asahi responded occasionally, but was otherwise content to listen to the other’s commentary.

When the all-clear was given to return to their apartments, Nishinoya had grabbed him, and asked Asahi to join him in his apartment for coffee. Bright red, Asahi had taken a moment to remember how to breathe before quietly agreeing.

The pair had continued to talk later into the night, until Asahi fell asleep on the sofa whilst Noya told him about a road trip he had taken with Tanaka after the pair had graduated from high school. And although he was horrifically embarrassed about passing out the next morning, Asahi hadn’t had a better night’s sleep in years.


End file.
